Category Archives: Teaching

An issue that I and other continue to ponder is why it remains difficult to attract women to STEM fields (math, engineering, science). Despite Larry Summer’s unfortunate remarks, I do think that there are more women capable of participating in… More On: Cupcakes, Creativity and Women in STEM

In one of the engineering courses I’m working with, students are grouped into teams of four and asked to submit one joint homework assignment (usually with at least four problems). The instructor likes this structure because 1) students are able… More On: Signing Off On Group Problem Submissions?

I’ve been seriously distracted by this WGBH/PBS NOVA interview with primatologist Rebecca Saxe, but it was so fascinating. I’ve watched enough chimp documentaries to know that they actually do use tools (like a stick to pick up a horde of… More On: Teaching at the Primate Level

Anyone familiar with embroidery, quilting, or knitting knows that some heavy duty math can come into the craft, depending on the pattern. Last night I was teaching a project called Optical Color Blending which is a showcase of mixing colors… More On: Introducing Embroiderers to their Inner Math Wizards

A few summers ago, I was very interested in getting FileMaker to convert hex numbers to decimal numbers and vice versa. This was an arcance enough question that I could not find a ready answer either online or in the… More On: Is Independent Learning Really Learning?

Now that I’ve worked with several technical courses, I realize that one of the more important and tricky parts of building a course is making sure students are properly introduced to new terminology in the correct sequence. This may seem… More On: Don’t Forget the Definition Box